Prior to the present invention, canine plasma available to veterinarians for use in canine patients has been “home-made” plasma typically made by veterinarians. This “home-made” plasma is produced as follows: a veterinarian collects whole blood from a donor dog; the collected blood is stored refrigerated for a three week period (the viable life span for red blood cells) and is thereby available for use, for example in a blood transfusion; and after the three week period, the collected blood is transported to a canine blood bank. At the blood bank the blood is centrifuged at a low speed (2,000 rpm, the maximum speed achievable for a 500 g bag of blood), causing the blood cells to “settle” and thereby roughly separating the plasma at the top of the bag from the blood cells at the bottom. The plasma is then siphoned off the top into another bag and frozen for later clinical use. The plasma separation step may also be performed at the time the blood is collected
The results achieved using dog plasma made by the above method have been only moderately satisfactory. Using plasma made in accordance with the above method exposes a patient to considerable potential for adverse treatment, including for example: transfusion reactions (fatal rupture of either the donor's or the recipient's red blood cells in the recipient's blood stream, known as Haemolysis, which is caused by the presence of unacceptable numbers of red cells in the donated plasma, or antibodies to donor red cell blood group in recipient's plasma, or antibodies to recipient red cell blood group in donor's plasma); transmission of disease, because the blood donors are frequently of either unknown or poor health; transfusion of plasma that is not sterile because of poor collection techniques, and possibly comprising contaminating bacteria, bacterial fragments or endotoxins (released when bacterial cells rupture), which can cause fatal infections/reactions in recipient patients. Also, homemade plasma preparations are not always be available, because of poor shelf life and labour intensive nature of production.
The use of plasma therapy in veterinary medicine is predominately in equine medicine, especially in referral centres, under the supervision of specialist equine veterinary practitioners. Plasma therapy has also been a treatment in other large animals including camelids such as Alpacas and Llamas. Plasma collection in large animals such as equine is less problematic compared with canine in part because of larger body mass and blood volume and the passive nature of the collection animal.
There remains a need for a safe and reliable method for collecting plasma from canine animals and isolated plasma that is reliable, safe and efficacious for use as a therapeutic agent.